Piezo technology has been used extensively in electronics for buzzers, lifter, light reflection deflection. Piezo units are fused, double layered, crystal materials, round or in a strip. When conductive wires are attached one to each layer and power is applied, the Piezo form warps. A planar disc will belly out to a concave lens shape, a rectangular strip will curve into a barrel stay form. When alternating current is applied, warping happens in one direction and then the other. For a round Piezo, it alternates from concave to convex form. A strip will flap, looking at the narrow side with junction of the materials showing, with one end fastened securely, the free end swings left and then right or the reverse if starting on the opposite phase. With direct current persisting, some will contort and recover making a buzz at a frequency dependent on the dimensions of the Piezo unit. In other words, if power is off, it has the planar shape; if on, the warped shape. If left on, it will resonate at its dimensionally determined frequency or holds a warped configuration.
Traditional propulsion in vehicles are engines with cylinders pushing the shaft, often a uniquely shaped crankshaft, having several nudges per rotation, the number depending on the number of cylinders firing. Traditional steering moves wheels or control surfaces changing direction or flight orientation. To center control surfaces easing holding control settings by pilots, mechanical or electrical drives adjust trim tabs that adjust either by physically changing the tab angle rotating electrically or by adjusting tension on guide wires by turning a wheel, which tightens one cable and loosens the other to the tab located on the control surface and adjusting that surface's pitch or position.
Traditional gas transfer is done with a gas or electric motor sucking in air from a large chamber and putting it out into another, using either a piston with a hollow to collect the air in from one compartment and release it in another or a bellows system. Many types of mechanical motion enable pumping.
Piezo electronics involves using a bi-material circle or strip with one material on one side and another on the other. The materials differ in size when electrical charge is applied. This makes the circle go from planar to convex if the power is positive and go from convex to concave if the power oscillates from positive to negative. Similarly, the bi-material strip, planar without charge, curves in one direction perpendicular to the sandwich surface when positive charge is applied and in the other direction with negative charge. This effect is achieved with relatively low power draws. Fixing the position of the circumference of the circle or one end of the strip makes the force useful.
Piezo technology was discovered between 1880-2 by brothers Pierre and Jacques Curie recognizing that paired crystals generated electricity when stressed and by Lippmann who in 1881 deduced mathematically, the opposite, the paired crystals would stress in response to the applied electricity. This invention applies the Lippmann discovery, this second phenomenon, that charge produces stress or dimension change.
The Discovery Application of the Piezo technology to current applications allows Piezo drives to power electric powered vehicles; Piezo trim tabs to adjust vehicle control surface positions and define propeller blade pitch; Piezo air compressor and fluid transfer systems to alter mass and buoyancy and indicate tactile signal of position; and Piezo digitizing quantifying sensor outputs in video cameras and emitter output in displays.
Piezo drives turn the shaft spinning the propeller(s) on air and sea vehicles, both surface and submerged vessels. This same configuration applied to wheel axles turns a wheel in one direction or the other depending on which array of Piezos is activated. For example, if one has dual Piezo drive on a wheel, one drives the wheel forward, the other backward. Applying both the wheel rotation can be stopped. This means, for land electric vehicles, the wheel can drive forward, and depending on the cadence of power, rotate forward at a range of speeds. It can similarly rotate backward at a range of speeds depending on cadence of power applied and number of Piezos. And, it can be stopped.
To enable electric nudging of the shaft, replacing an engine, one applies spokes radiating from the shaft or one or more squirrel cages to the body of the shaft such that a cylinder runs parallel and is centered on the shaft with bars running parallel with the shaft forming the outside of the cylinder. The shaft can be rotated in either direction depending on the choice of the first nudge and continued by timing of continuing nudges. Cruise control can be achieved by having different frequency Piezo units nudging the rotation of the axle. Once speed is achieved, the Piezo with the resonating frequency contacts the spinning cage at the speed desired. Stopping the nudges slows the shaft turning rate. Control slowing or stopping is achieved by powering the resistive intersect Piezo, which impedes passage of the cage bars as the axle turns. A shaft can drive propellers, front and back, for an air vehicle. A shaft can drive left and right wheels or one wheel at a time allowing for rotational steering for a land vehicle. The shaft grounded in a bearing to allow rotation on one end and with the propeller on the other, which drives a sea vehicle. Piezo power drives electric vehicles. The fuel is electrons. Making the body and interior structure of POWER PLASTIC, rechargeable batteries embedded in laminate and molded as needed stores the power, electrons, and are charged from a variety of sources including AC power, solar cells, and wind and tidal generators.
Having independent wheel drive control, the vehicle can be turned by having a slower rotation on the wheels on one side than the other for the four-wheeled vehicles causing turning to the left or the right, respectively. One can turn the vehicle by stopping the wheels on one side while the wheels on the other side rotate making an arc with the long side on the side with rotating wheels and the center of the arc or circle on the side where wheel rotation is stopped. One can also rotate the vehicle by having forward rotation on one side and backward rotation on the other making the vehicle spin in place.
Steering aircraft and boats and ships, one applies Piezo trim tabs to control surfaces where this bi-material strip will arch proportional to power applied. A trim tab is a small segment of the control surface including, but not limited to, rudder, aileron and elevators in an aircraft or the rudder and any fin structure of a ship. Deflection of the trim tab causes the control surface to change angle in response to the extension of the tab. Generally trim tabs are used to center the control surface for light touch steering. Here we activate their role to doing the steering. This method could steer an enroute passenger or freight aircraft remotely preventing hijackers' reaching their planned destinations or to safely land an aircraft aloft when the pilot has a trauma and cannot pilot the aircraft.
Using voltage sensitive Piezo materials as trim tabs, power applied proportional to the deflection of the control surface needed applied to the elevators, rudder and ailerons can steer an airplane. Similarly, this type of Piezo trim tab applied to rudder and gill fins (if desired) can steer and rotate a boat or ship. Combining a large Piezo on the roof of an auto, bus or truck with independent rotation speeds in at least for one pair of wheels, charging the Piezo to bend giving some sail effect in a turn can balance a turn making the passengers and load less reactive to the change in direction of the electric vehicle. These are controlled remotely for unmanned vehicles and from the cockpit, driver's seat and helm of electric vehicles for land, air and sea.
Similarly, propeller pitch control is provided by Piezo movement to adjust the blade angle. Three settings, i.e. degrees of rotation of the blade in the propeller hub, are possible. All blades on the shaft must be controlled to the same degree. Shafts with fore and aft props must have all blades on the shaft at the same pitch. Three levels can be achieved using no power on the Piezo unit for medium pitch used in cruise mode; power applied in one direction provides the low prop pitch for climbing and take-off, and power applied in the other direction, to the other side of the bi-material strip, would cause feathering of the prop used during engine out situations.
Managing altitude and buoyancy of an airplane, boat and ship is achieved by inflating and deflating gas bellows. In aircraft, Helium is the choice gas. Using the Piezo bi-polar motion to fill a chamber and flatten it having one way flow valves directing intake from one chamber and exhaust into another allows the bellows to be filled giving lift to the airplane such that, with sufficiently low mass/volume, it lifts to seek equilibrium with air pressure like a Helium balloon. Takeoff uses fuel at the highest rate of all common flight maneuvers. Balloon style airplane launches save power extending flights by power conservation during take-off and climbs.
This same concept applied on a smaller scale allows Piezo driven sensorial stimulation for matrix pattern presentation, as on the wrist for a Speech Presentation device U.S. Pat. No. 4,520,501, the TactilEar. Here the Piezo pump inhales air or water from the environment through one-way valves and on opposite charge thrusts a stream of air or water through a narrow tube stimulating the skin to indicate a specific matrix position in the signal stream. The Piezo is driven by frequencies proportional to, in this case, voice pitch, allowing identification of a sound by the pattern and voice pitch from frequencies of speech code received by the device. What is nice about using air stream stimulation, and water if swimming, is that the skin will not be calloused from use, as it may were bristles used actually touching of the skin. This device substitutes for and augments ear hearing. Speech is received with tactile input, thus eyes are freed to do seeing tasks.
And, for digitizing sensor electrical output, a series of Piezo units are employed. For binary output, off or on, use a single Piezo unit. To define four levels, off plus three levels of response, have two Piezo units reacting to sensor output. The lowest level elicits a response bending the smaller Piezo. Increased output bends the larger Piezo. If charge is strong enough, both the first and second Piezo bend. Having wiring at the location where the uncharged Piezo unit is not touching, but if charged, it shorts out the wire as it bends and contacts it, the electrical output defines sensor charge levels thus digitizing the signal even with sensors and Piezo units in nano-scale configurations. If application demands eight levels of output, a third Piezo, double capacity of the second Piezo, is included in series. Were the power output from the sensor, say, for example, molecules of Chlorophyll, excited by light in the red spectral area, at low levels, off through three levels of output, output is as just described. Higher output activates the third Piezo only, then increasing as the first and third units respond, the second and third, and, for the maximum output, all three defining a total of eight output levels. Adding a fourth Piezo enables sixteen levels of output. If the Piezo output digitizers are used with each of three sensors for, say, a tricolor video camera pixel, the resulting chromatic differentiation in color would be 512 colors. Using a fourth Piezo, again double the third, each sensor has sixteen scale units, zero through fifteen, and the color spectrum possible for the camera totals 4,096 colors. This would produce a quality video or television image working in both micro and nano scale sensor circuitry.
Applying the Piezo units to drive the power levels of each chromatic unit in the pixels, voltage applied in the instant a specific pixel is being defined would emit the brightness of color dependent on charge available to excite the molecule. The circuit powered the Piezo units, similar to the camera, provides available charge on the wires. As the Piezo is charged, contacting the power wires, the emitter is charged according to the charge level transmitted to it. With no power, that color emitter is black. With one unit, the smallest with a trickle of power, it would glow a bit. With two a bit brighter on through all Piezos shorting out the power wires making the emitter scream the color it emits. Were it the blue emitter, the color would emit strong blue light. If the other two emitters were also fully charged, for red and for green, the resulting color would be bright white. Again, all off, the pixel would be black, and for all other levels, mixing the three colors, a full spectrum of colors are on the menu.
The Piezo technology described here takes advantage of the bi-material unit's responding to a charge source to create a change in entropy, in direction, in pressure, in charge level recorded and in brightness emitted. This small component implements major change enabling power-efficient electric vehicles and electronic equipment.